2007 Another Strong Year for Worldwide DCS Market, Says ARC

According to the ARC Advisory Group, the global DCS market grew by almost 13% between 2006 and 2007. “ARC expects there to be continued growth in the global DCS market through 2012, with the overall CAGR of just under 10%. This may seem like an overzealous growth projection to some, but the process automation market remains poised for long-term growth on several fronts that we believe will be sustainable for the next several years,” according to ARC Research Director Larry O’Brien, the principal author of ARC’s “Distributed Control Systems Worldwide Outlook”.

In ARC’s view, 2008 will be a pivotal year for competitive system migration, and suppliers will become more and more aggressive about targeting their competitors’ installations. At the same time, many end users are reformulating their automation strategy for the next decade and are reevaluating their installed base suppliers.

In addition, ARC estimate that there are $65 billion worth of installed process automation systems in the world today that are nearing the end of their useful lifecycle, which in many cases can exceed 25 years. Many — as much as $12 billion worth — are some of the original DCSs first installed in the late 1970s. Some date back to the pneumatic or analog age.

ARC sees particular promise in the long-term growth prospects for the Chinese pharmaceutical and batch process related industries. The Chinese pharmaceutical industry is growing at 30% per year, and the need for more advanced forms of automation to achieve regulatory compliance and enable China’s pharmaceutical companies to become true global players is huge. The basic process and discrete industries also continue to perform well. In the oil and gas industry, there continues to be a lot of focus on offshore production to meet China’s ever increasing demand.